Dell Inc. is expecting personal computer shipments in Asia to increase by 20% in 2007 together with servers and notebooks. This does not include South Korea, Japan and China. Shipments for the whole continent reached 3.5 million units per quarter last year and no official figure was released for the aimed market.Dell Inc. is currently the number 2 maker of PCs, holding 15% of the global market. Hewlett Packard Co. is number 1 with 19% so the competition is tight. Dell has always been a company that is based on a direct-to-consumer business model. Buyers usually place orders via telephone or online but with the new aimed market there is a strong possibility of using retailers for distribution. Paul-Henri Ferrand, Dell’s president for Asia Pacific South declared:

“What we have realized lately is that the direct model should not just be a religion. ”Because what we’ve seen is that some consumers, especially in Asia, want to go to a store to touch, see, feel, compare. And some are not used to going on the web, or on the phone, to order.”

Dell became the world’s largest PC maker because of the direct sales model so it is hard to believe that this will be removed. Emphasizing on retailers as well might be a good move to make the company sell more and re-claim their top place. Gaining a bigger piece of the Asian market is also looked at as being a good solution.